It's my birthday...yeah!

I'm one of those weirdo March people that get excited about their own birthday. Today is my 45th. I've spent quite a bit of time on the computer today poking around visiting blogs, there is so much creativity out there! I've also happily been doing laundry! I will post pictures later of the new W&D. Phil and I will be heading to my mom's for birthday dinner soon, then I have fabric to press and cut for various projects.

My birthday present is on its way, it is an antique New Home hand crank sewing machine. I can't wait for it to arrive!

My last week has been focused on work, I love my job! I really do!

Also, the plans for a gathering in memory of Esther have fallen into place. Somehow, I managed to secure our clubhouse for a weekend in May that works best for everyone. I will be co-hosting with my friends Tina and Karen. We have a call for 12-1/2" heart blocks for the quilt we are making Andrew and also will be making a memory book. We are all sad, but working together on these projects helps to ease the loss.

Life...and saying goodbye to Esther

Today included moments I wish I could erase from my life. I received word of the passing of my friend, Esther. Esther was one of my antique sewing machine collector friends who was just a riot to spend time with. A tribute to her memory can be found here. This is a picture of her making tatted doilies for those of us in attendance at our treadleon gathering academy last summer (Michigan TOGA). The doilies are for the spool pins of our sewing machines. She was wearing her favorite shirt.

Esther's husbands message to me said she was struck by a virus and passed when it attacked her heart. He was unable to access her work e-mail address until just recently, so he was unable to notify us at the time of her passing on the 26th of February. Phil and I are going to have this picture printed for him and visit soon. It is probably no surprise that she was on my mind recently, we had talked a few days before she passed. I was asking her opinion of washers and dryers and trying to decide which of the hand tatted doilies she gave to me, to place on my little hand crank sewing machine.

It wasn't until about lunch time that I finally received word from my friend's Tina and Karen through my husband. I was in meetings all morning and it was terribly difficult to not fall to pieces when I received word of the loss of this wonderful friend. While I worked on, Karen and Tina started making plans on ways our group could pay our own tribute to our dear friend, and to try to soothe the loss of all. More on this later.

It was mentioned that my tag line and mission, reminded someone of Esther. It is fitting of what I know of my short years with Esther in my life that "What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others".

whoops...

I didn't get a post in for the month of February so blew that new year's resolution. Last weekend I had a great time when I went out dancing last weekend with my high school class mates. I also cleaned the National Arlington sewing machine head. This weekend I'm spending home doing some chores. I hope to put away the contents of three boxes of antiques. These are the kitchenalia items that I used to have hanging on my kitchen walls and on top of my many cupboards in the old house. In this home, not sure what I will do as surely, not enough room for everything.

When I took pictures of the Arlington, I was surprised when I saw this gorgeous picture of Phoebe looking out the window.

My washer is on the fritz. I knew it hadn't been cleaning clothes as well as I think it should so I'd spent a lot of time lately babying it along by turning the knob to run through the wash cycle twice and the rinse cycle twice, and restarting the final spin. The dryer won't dry in the first run, so we end up running it through again and then it seems to 'cook' your clothes. These are the washer and dryer Phil bought brand new nearly 20 years ago. We are adamant about cleaning the filters, and even wash the dryer filter because we use fabric softener. We can't see wasting anymore energy on the old machines, the parts to repair them are outrageous, and yet, can't see going without and using public laundry. So, we did our homework and shopped around and put a washer and dryer on layaway. This is big! Huge!! I've never had a brand new washer and dryer. I also searched around for local sales of newer models folks were selling, but what I found were the trouble models that did poorly in the Consumer's Reports ratings. We are getting a front-load washer, the basic GE model. They don't have a fancy name, but these are the ones that are recommended by Consumer's Reports and are supposed to meet all of our needs. I want something that cleans and cleans well. We don't have to go for the greatest and best features and buttons, but we want to get the best for our money and we want capacity. We did consider the high efficiency top loaders, but when we found out you still have to pack your clothes around the center nubby agitator or it will get off balanced, and therefore, you can't put as much in it as they claim. We decided to spend the same amount of money on a front-loader.

We also decided to paint the walls of this tiny laundry room. So, I don't know yet if I will like it as I usually paint in some kind of green, but I choose a bright sunny yellow with a bit of orange in it. I figure a laundry room has to be bright and sunny. The floor has a couple tears in it, so decided to get some of those stick on vinyl tiles for something different and minimal in cost. Here's what I came up with. I figure if the yellow is too much, I can always repaint it a lighter color It is called Sunset Glow...and glow it does! Certainly lends it itself to more enjoyment of doing the dratted chore of laundry. Another thing we did was remove the door to the laundry room. Wow, it opened up that room completely! We never close it because that is where the cat boxes reside.

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year! I really wish the best for everyone in 2009. A clean slate and a chance to start over. I've also reconnected with my friend Erica who is one of the most creative people I know! Her blog is located at http://luboost1.blogspot.com/ Phil informed me it's great Stormy Kromer weather -- bitter cold and now it is snowing. His new hat arrived just in time. I was so disappointed recently, after receiving over three feet of snow, we had 50 degree weather that melted much of it, caused major flooding of our Grand River, and even thunderstorms! I prefer my winter to be full of snow. By the way, our car turned out wonderfully! We found the absolutely best mechanic in West Michigan! He is fair, honest, and thorough!

Since my computer system had to be reset last weekend (outlook crashed and caused errors) I've been trying to piece it back together. Okay, the problem was over 4000 e-mails in my inbox and folders. At least I was able to save all of my photos and files outside of Outlook. What I did lose was my inbox and all of my contacts. My friends, please send me your contact info again...

New Years resolution #1: I will delete, delete, delete, and not use Outlook as my archive. So far, I've been doing really well since I set everything back up and as of today, it's been one week. Much of my e-mails comes from my sewing groups, so unless it's of major importance to my New Home Sewing Machine Company research, I pretty much don't need to keep everything.

New Years resolution #2: I will go back on Weight Watcher's. I did really well until I was placed on a high dose of medicine that made me gain 12 pounds last May. I just went right back up from there. Finally, I gave up on the diet. Since, I've been changed to another medication that hopefully isn't the cause of such issues.

New Year's resolution #3: I will finish off at least one UFO (in the quilting world a UFO is known as an Unfinished Fabric Object).

New Year's resolution #4: I will post on my blog at least once a month...

I've decided to participate in a New Year's Eve Mystery Quilt from Bonnie at http://www.quiltville.com/ . I think what grabbed my interest is that Bonnie is using mostly civil war repros in hers and I have been itching to complete a quilt using Civil War repro fabrics. I've been collecting them for a few years, but haven't used them. As I underwent so much reorganization of my sewing room in 2008, I thought I had my arms around my entire stash and knew where everything was. But, when I opened the bin containing my CW fabrics and grabbed a small box that contained some miscellaneous CW fat quarter cuts from a previous swap, I realized I didn't have as many as I thought. Yep, I saw the fabric I bought at the quilt show in Chicago earlier this year. Yet, it seemed there was more...somewhere, so I poked around. Then...it happened...the sound of glorious music rang in my ears as the light shone down upon a HUGE shopping bag of fabric nearly FULL of CW fabrics! I hit the mother-load in my own sewing room! Well, it turned out I still was in need of three yards of 'double pinks' and some 'mustard' color fabrics. I called my local quilt shop and they were having a sale. I never go out and purchase fabric. Never. However, I need these for this quilt so decided to treat myself to a little Christmas present. I spent more than I should have but came home with a few extra yards for my stash. Now, I really feel naughty! Later I will take a picture of my progress on the Double Delight New Years Eve Mystery Quilt.

As I enjoy the people powered machines! Yes, I still love my e-machines but lately, the treadles are winning out and I've spent quite a bit of time lately (there's the 'T' word again) cleaning some of my treadle sewing machines and I felt it is only fitting if I use a treadle for the CW quilt.

I decided to use my very early Davis Vertical Feed New High Arm treadle which has a built in walking foot and no feed dogs. Another interesting thing about this particular machine is that the bobbin winder is underneath the table on the treadle irons. Although my Davis VF is 1884-5 ish, I am not fortunate to own any machines that date around the years of the CW. My oldest is 1880, but the VF on the Davis really is nice for accurate piecing. There are people I know that do all of their quilting on these very machines and all of their sewing on treadle machines. I may find myself dragging it into the kitchen so I'm not secluded in my treadle room.

Us collector's tend to name our machines, so I've named it 'Sarge' after one of my favorite and most memorable cats.

Here's a picture of the machine head. The decals are in very good condition for this model of Davis VF.

Here's the bobbin winder. It makes for an interesting stretch to wind the boat shuttle bobbins underneath the table.

Another note of interest, yes, I removed the picture of my Christmas Spider ornament. I did this because I suddenly had tons of hits on my blog for my spider alone and decided to reel him in some. I don't mind sharing my idea however, thinking I may go further with him in the future and put a tutorial out there.

I've also added a gadget that allows you to follow my blog. I didn't know about this feature, but think it is kind of fun.